HuffPost Live Studio Closing

AOL’s HuffPost Live is shuttering the Beverly Hills studio where it produced talking heads programming daily as part of a Web video initiative of the Huffington Post.

The studio launched last summer to supply four hours of daily programming for HuffPost Live. The programming features discussions about current events, with some coming from studios in New York and Washington.

HuffPost Live president Roy Sekoff said the move is part of a strategy to expand coverage of international issues, which the company announced Wednesday.

“HuffPost Live is going global, with a new editorial focus on world coverage,” he said in an e-mail in response to a Business Journal inquiry. “As a result of this shift in focus, we’re reallocating resources.”

HuffPost Live had 26 employees in Beverly Hills. Sekoff said more than two-thirds of the Beverly Hills staff has been offered positions in New York.

HuffPost Live is available online and announced a distribution deal earlier this year with the AXS cable channel. Forty percent of its audience tunes in from abroad, the company said.

The new international focus will include an hour of daily discussion on issues that have gained widespread international attention. The programming will come from contributors overseas as well as stateside.